There should be a national-level museum on Western Ghats Biodiversity Heritage in Kerala and it should be taken up by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board, said Venugopal B, director, National Museum of Natural History.
He was delivering a lecture on the second day of the National Biodiversity conference organised by the Kerala State Biodiversity Board as part of the National Biodiversity Congress and Expo-2012, held at Kanakakunnu Palace.
He pointed out that the museum will help the people to be more aware of the values of biodiversity and the steps they should take to conserve and use it sustainably.
The first session of the conference titled ‘Food Security through Organic Farming’ started with a lecture by Renee M Borges from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. “We are aware of ants benefiting from the nectar produced by plants.
But how many of us know that the ants and earthworms provide an equal nutrient benefit to the plant in return. This is the diversity in the biosphere of this planet,” he said.
Sreejith Aravaindakshan, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, highlighted the need for an institutional mechanism to address pesticide safety in India.
“A proper institutional mechanism plays the keyrole in improving environmental and economic performance of vegetable production in India,” he said. Other speakers at the conference also enlightened the audience in the area of biodiversity and its conservation.
The National Biodiversity conference was attended by scholars, research students and enthusiasts. The four-day conference will conclude on December 30.